11 march 2011

First OFC Conference streaming thanks to The Co-operative

The whole of the 2011 Oxford Farming Conference (OFC) can now be seen online at www.ofcstreaming.org.uk thanks to sponsorship from The Co-operative Group.

The dedicated video streaming website is free of charge for anyone to access, but is particularly targeted at students who, it is hoped, will benefit most from hearing the speakers' delivery of their papers.

"The OFC council has made the commitment to share the footage as part of The Oxford Farming Conference's wider charitable remit to educate," explains Chairman Cedric Porter. "We are extremely grateful to The Co-operative for their sponsorship of the initiative and are keen that future conferences will be able to be viewed online soon after they take place."

The approach to stream the conference came from the OFC's 2011 Chairman, Christine Tacon, who had discussed the idea with some of the UK agricultural universities and colleges so that their students and lecturers could access the footage.

Video extends conference's educational commitment.

"The Co-operative has chosen to sponsor The Oxford Farming Conference 2011 video streaming to extend the conference’s educational commitment," explains Ms Tacon, Managing Director of The Co-operative Farms. “The original concept was to stream the conference live, however, very few students are at college the first week of January, so it developed into the website we see today.”

The OFC already hosts an average of 50 scholars per year at the Conference, funded by a variety of charities, educational establishments and commercial businesses active in agriculture. "The streaming website allows those unable to attend to experience a wide range of exceptionally high-calibre speakers in a virtual environment."

The sponsorship fits well with The Co-operative’s Inspiring Young People agenda. Christine Tacon said: "Training and development is a core focus within The Co-operative Farms, which runs both management training and apprenticeship schemes. Equipping youngsters with access to information and opinion is a crucial part of their development, so the streaming of an event like the OFC could play a very active part in this process."

For best viewing results users of the website are encouraged to download and save the videos to their computers before viewing, particularly where bandwidth is an issue.

To access the OFC streaming site go to www.ofcstreaming.org.uk. For more details about the Oxford Farming Conference, go to the OFC website www.ofc.org.uk.